Honolulu, May 27, 2026, 13:04 (HST)
- Around 250 Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants in Seattle are seeing new restrictions on leis, flowers, and aloha shirts while working certain Alaska-branded Boeing 787 flights.
- Alaska Air Group faces a dispute as it works to merge crews, systems and flight operations, while Alaska and Hawaiian continue as separate public brands.
- Alaska is dealing with the uniform problem just as it adds long-haul flights from Seattle, including new routes to Rome and London.
Roughly 250 Hawaiian Airlines flight attendants reassigned to Seattle as part of Alaska Air Group’s long-haul routes are facing new uniform rules that ban flowers, leis, and aloha shirts on some flights. The aloha shirt, usually bright and floral, is a Hawaiian staple.
The shift is key as crews are running Alaska-branded Boeing 787 flights out of Seattle while the airline moves to expand its international reach. Seattle flights aren’t a minor project. Alaska has started Rome and London routes, flying 787s picked up from the Hawaiian deal to go deeper into Europe and Asia.
The Association of Flight Attendants told members in a Seattle crew-base Q&A note that starting April 25, interim 787-9 Dreamliner uniforms will be used on all 787 Alaska Global-branded routes, including runs to Hawaii and international flights. The union said the first Seattle base will staff 250 flight attendants, and the company is also recruiting crew with Korean, Japanese and Italian language skills.
Some employees and customers say Hawaiian’s onboard style is more than just decoration. It’s a part of how the airline has marketed Hawaii and how local travelers have identified the company for years, well before Alaska bought Hawaiian Holdings for $1.9 billion in September 2024.
Alaska plans to keep Alaska and Hawaiian as separate brands, though the two airlines are shifting to common systems. The group got a single operating certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration in October 2025. That means both fly under one set of safety and operating rules. Meanwhile, a unified passenger service system has started linking customer booking and check-in functions this spring.
The dual-brand setup for Alaska and Hawaiian doesn’t have a U.S. airline example, Eric Edge, vice president of brand and marketing for both carriers, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It’s not something that has been done by a U.S. airline before,” Edge said. Yahoo Finance
Diana Birkett Rakow, CEO of Hawaiian, said the brand is about more than paint or airport logos. “It really starts with the people,” she told The Points Guy earlier this year. She said culture and sense of place are key to the carrier’s identity. The Points Guy
Union records show the pushback goes beyond uniforms. AFA said it used test flights between Seattle and Seoul to build out service for future flights to Rome, London, Seoul and Tokyo from Seattle, but the union said it still had issues with staffing, crew workload, and service flow. The union has not yet signed off on the new plans.
Alaska is stepping up competition with Delta Air Lines in Seattle as it adds more international flights. Delta has turned the airport into a big hub for transpacific and transatlantic routes. Alaska’s launch of its first flights from Seattle to Europe, with Rome and London, puts it into the same long-haul market where yields are higher.
Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci called the Rome launch “a significant step” in the company’s long-range growth plan. The airline said adding the route lets Hawaii travelers reach Europe with one stop in Seattle. That’s a main factor in why Alaska says the Hawaiian 787s fit into its bigger strategy. Alaska Airlines
Alaska faces a risk that a limited rule about appearances could grow into a bigger trust issue. If workers or people in Hawaii view the end of leis, flowers, and aloha shirts as the start of Hawaiian’s culture slipping away, Alaska might hit more pushback in talks with labor and as it merges daily business into a single network.
Peter Forman, an aviation analyst in Hawaii, told Hawaii News Now last year that Alaska’s management should recognize how locals feel about the airline. “We’re very proud of this homegrown airline flying since 1929,” Forman said. https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com
Next test flights are running. AFA said staffing is still a top issue on Seattle’s 787 international route, with the union now in a 30-day observation period after it declined to endorse Alaska-branded international service from Seattle. Flight attendants have until May 28 to complete a survey about the service.
